Dunne Attacks Racist Overtones

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says the “nasty racist overtone” creeping into the election campaign reflects a rising international racist tide.

“The New Zealand First leader’s predictable racial slurs were despicable and sadly what we have come to expect, and the Labour candidate’s anti-Semitic slur against the Prime Minister was the product of woeful ignorance.

“Sadly, they are part of a rising international pattern – in recent days a UK Independence Party leader has urged his party’s candidates to emulate Hitler in the way they address public meetings.

“And there is the rising level of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe over the situation in Gaza.

“I am not in any way condoning or supporting Israel’s unacceptable actions in Gaza, but I strongly oppose the issue being used for anti-Semitic purposes,” he says.

Mr Dunne is calling on all New Zealand political parties to show more racial tolerance during the election campaign and to stop playing the race card on sensitive issues like land sales and immigration.

“We need to be exposing and opposing bigotry and intolerance wherever it occurs, not standing quietly by, and letting it be milked for political advantage,” he says.

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